The incredibly random musings and sometimes insightful thoughts of a dreamer and writer. This blog will detail my professional writing career, along with smatterings of reflections and opinions on the world around me.

Friday, August 18, 2006

After my last final(Saturday morning!), I am heading up to the Great Green North for a week of summer camp fun! It's been a long time since I haven't spent a summer at Medeba. I must say, I am really looking forward to being able to volunteer for the final week of camp. Plus it will be nice to see lots of people that I haven't seen since Easter and some other people that I haven't seen for about a year. Plus I'll see Emily again which I admit will be nice (awww, I'm so sweet). The other plus side of being at Medeba means I'm free of having to study for exams or write essays about He-Man or Communist (the two don't relate). Or at least, I'll be free from it for about 3 weeks.

Anyway, it's not like I've been the best at consistently posting anyway. This next week, I may be invisible from the blog world again. If I do have the time, I'll be sure to throw up a few updates on the excitement that is Camp Medeba. For now, I wish all my readers a fine and dandy weekend plus possibly week (not to read that as meaning I possibly want you to have a bad week).

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Today and even yesterday and maybe even the day before that, I wanted to type up a little diddy about a presentation I saw that had to do with evolution. This is not that diddy. Not to say the diddy will never appear in typed form on this website. It may. It also very likely to be completely forgotten and left with the many other blog ideas that never saw life. It may also evolve to something you can all enjoy and debate.

I announce that August 16, 2006(psst. . . today) will be the last day that my lovely face looks exactly like it looks at this moment. Tomorrow, I am allowing a blade to touch this lovely masterpiece. After all, I've been wanting to look younger for a long time. I thought a little nip and tuck was long overdue. No wait. . . that isn't right. Instead, I'll be having a small benign lump on my left cheek removed. Before you freak, remember that I said benign. So why do I want it removed? Because I'm incredibly vain. That is right, vanity has made me decide to remove the lump and replace it with a possible scar. Because then I could make up a really cool story about how I got it. I can make us of killer llamas, pirates and Bill Nye. All stories need a good dose of the Science Guy. Is he still around?

In reality land (sounds like a new show on Fox), I'm actually removing it because my history shows it will probably get infected. Infection is bad, kids. Anyone who knows the tale my back right leg knows why srugery is smart. If you don't, it's not that exciting. Kind of like this post. I'll let the knife do it's damage and hope I'm not left with too nasty of a scar. Apparently, it will allow me to not worry about having to shave one spot on my cheek ever again. Man, you know how much trouble I have with shaving so that could be a time saver! All in all, it should work pretty well for me.

Other than the fact I don't really like sharp stuff touching my face. I'm so wierd like that, I know.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

A few weeks back, I saw the much raved about Superman Returns. I read reviews where it was heralded as the greatest comic book movie of all time. I had peers telling me that it was a non stop thrill ride. Basically, I was buried in piles and piles hypage (is that a word because if not, I call dibs on creating it). Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to see this movie because 1) I'm a comic book geek at heart 2) Shamefully, I must admit Emily got me semi hooked at the Lois & Clark series and 3) I'm a guy thus any movie promising explosions is high on my list. I paid my $7.50 (yah for cheap theatres in smaller cities!), I bought my bag of pop corn, and was ready for 2 hours of pure excitement and enjoyment.

I was disappointed.

Now, we're not talking about Napoleon Dynamite disappointment. We aren't talking about people promising me that this is exactly my type of movie and me wondering what type of person they think I am. No, it isn't one of the worst movies ever created by mankind (though, I admit for a movie that I disliked so much, I sure like to bring it up, don't I? Must be my desire to always bug poor, sweet, lovely Molly).
Superman Returns wasn't a monumental disappointment. It's more along the lines of Spiderman 2. Both movies were ballyhooed as being absolutely amazing awesome. I believe both movies when they came out were declared to be the best comic book movie ever. I admit that I did like both. I might even watch them again if I was in an incredibly lazy mood, a bunch of friends were watching them and a big bowl of popcorn was in front of me. Obviously, I'm not calling for the film reels to be torched.

They weren't the best comic book movies ever. I liked the first Spiderman way more than I enjoyed the second. As for Superman Returns, I just couldn't get over the universe that was presented to me. Maybe I had been watching too much Lois & Clark or I was too attached to the modernized comic version of Superman. I really didn't enjoy how Clark Kent was such an afterthought and secondary character. I love superheroes and I obviously want the hero to get a lot of face time. I enjoy the superhero story so much more when we are reminded it is the day to day alter ego that is the real person. We deal with the struggles that the alter ego has with balancing his life with his superhero life. Those type of stories is why I absolutely adore Spiderman and have tons of Batman comics. In the TV series Lois & Clark, I believe they found a great balance between letting us know Clark Kent the human and Superman as the saviour. In the series, I enjoyed the interaction and relationship between Clark and Lois. In the movie, Lois entire feelings are directed at Superman and she doesn't seem to even care that Clark Kent has recently returned too. Once again, I'll blame it on liking the TV show thus this little story development really bothered me.

I've heard the argument that this film is trying to follow the previous movies thus I need to get notions of the TV series or the comics from my head. Even doing that, I still disliked other elements in this movie. I did enjoy that it was able to maintain some of the campy enjoyment the original films had. I thought Kevin Spacey was a incredibly evil Lex Luthor which is a big compliment. There were a few campy or cheesy elements that I wasn't a huge fan of. I personally thought the final 20 minutes of the movie was fairly poor especially the ending scene with Lex. I already spent a paragraph on this but I really didn't like how centered the film was on Superman & Lois. I thought it was a little overkill and there was other story elements that could have been explored. I would have liked the film to go into further detail of why Superman decided he needed to abandon everyone for many years. Yes, I know they explained he was trying to find out if there was any remains of Krypton plus if any life from the destroyed planet still existed. What I mean is, I would have liked to see if he had any personal inner struggle leaving the world, women and family he apparently loves so much. I would have liked to know what was his real intentions of going to discover Krypton? To really beat the poor dead horse with it's own leg, I really didn't like another element about Lois & Superman's relationship. Lois' young boy. I didn't think I would like the fact she had a boy. At the end of the movie, I knew I didn't like that fact. I don't want to ruin the movie for people who haven't seen it, a major plot point concerning the boy was definitely something I put in the 'hated it' file.

It sounds like I trashed the movie. In reality, I really didn't mind it. I just won't throw out best ever comic book movie accolades. I'll just say it was a fair movie with a few elements that irritated me. Some of the criticisms could be more because of how I envision the Superman universe and I'm comparing this film to other versions of Superman that I eagerly enjoy.

I recognize the next question is, what do I consider the best comic book movie ever? I am not going to answer that. Mainly because I don't really have an undisputed favourite. I liked the first X-Men (was really not a fan of the 3rd), the first Michael Keaton's Batman was great, I really loved the original Spiderman and despite everyone in the world hating it, I enjoyed Daredevil too. I don't have an undisputed champion in my mind. That could change because I've been told for months and months that I must see Batman Begins. I want to see it. I'm also a little anxious due to it being very hyped to me -- it's been given some 'best ever' throw outs too. Am I really in the mood to slag yet another movie everyone feel I'll love oodles?

Wow, this was a doozy of a post. You guys probably only thought I typed this much when I was referencing wrestling.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Don't worry it's not naughty. But I need to restrain myself from checking it out anymore or I'll never finish this essay about He-Man. That's right, I am doing an essay about He-man and I will be graded on it.

Back to the site, apparently there is this term known as 'abandonware'. It means that the computer game publisher no longer supports a particular game anymore. Thus it basically means the game becomes abandoned by the company and essentially is no longer considered owned by the corporation (those greedy monsters). The good news for us means the game essentially can now be played for free. That little link will lead you to a majestic land of wonders where you can download a whole gamut of old school computer games. They are just begging for a home where they can be fed, loved and played. If you never played computer games or are in no way a geek, this site is about as exciting to you as a ladybug crawling on a glade of grass. Unless your Leigh because that would actually cause you to totally freak out. Come on Leigh, you know I'm right.

Anyway, I'm not going there because I need not procrastinate anymore today. But you, have my ultimate blessing.

9. The dog ate my blogs. Hmmm. . . that didn't work for homework in high school either. Rats.

8. Blogs are bad for the environment. I'm all about the Green Peace now. I throw my plastics in the garbage can instead of the on the lawn now. Yeah for me! What? You're supposed to recycle those? So many rules, I can't keep up!!!

7. I've been spending the last 3 months trying to figure out how to register online for Dee & Cam's wedding. Um guys. . . I apologize if it says me and Em have accepted to come to the wedding about 131 times. Like I said, technology scares me and often will leave me in a drooling stupor.

6. I've devoted all my time to trying to discover the Caramilk secret. How does that Caramel get into those chocolate cubes? Or maybe more importantly, why did a marketing company even think that was a half decent campaign? The question should have been why should anyone care? Or even moreso, how can a campaign be considered intriguing when a 6 year old child probably figured it out the mystery.

5. Too much crime is abundant in this universe. You may wonder how that is a valid excuse for me to stop blogging. I say, I'm not about to reveal that I have a superhero alter ego. Oops.

4. I'm holding out for the big bling. If sports stars can do it then why can't I? No more blogging goodness until I see the mad cash. What do mean by 'so, I guess this will be your last blog?' Aw man!

3. I've actually been blogging consistently for 4 months now. They've probably been the most insightful, thought-provoking, hilarious and super-awesome (that's one word) blogs ever known to man. I've just done them all in the invisible font. Learn how to read it.

2. Cam ate waiver wings and he could have died. What does that have to do with not blogging? Nothing. I must allow it to be known to the whole world that a friend of mine actually thought it was a good idea to eat food that needed a waiver to be signed and a health card to be presented. Since we are guys, we deemed him the man forever and ever.

1. Isn't it rather odd that I claim to enjoy writing yet I can't even keep up this blog on a regular basis? According to the date, my last blog entry was in May. May! May I please tell you that it is now August. Somebody is horrid at this blog thing. And it isn't Cheesy Toffee because that person just logged in another entry. Why am I shilling for Cheesy Toffee? I don't know. I have never read her work and maybe I now feel guilty. Doesn't she deserve my readership? Doesn't she deserve some props? Once again, I don't know because I never read her work. I probably won't start. Hmmm. . . looks like #s 2 & 1 on this here top ten list don't actually have any relation to the actual point of the list. Isn't that truly the real point? Yes, I know that makes no sense. I also know that an entire blog entry from me that does make sense would in reality not truly make any sense. I gots to be me. You know it.